Dead Island Riptide: Schrödinger’s Zombie Cat

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It’s definitely dead.

By Stace Harman

Were he alive to ponder it, Erwin Schrödinger would surely appreciate the quandary presented by both Dead Island Riptide and its predecessor. On the one hand, the original Dead Island featured a number of positive characteristics: the freedom to explore a paradise lost, entertaining multiplayer and an appealing mix of co-op action sprinkled with light RPG elements. Of course, its crowning glory was an imaginatively wacky arsenal, the blueprints of which contained just enough goofy logic to be tantalisingly plausible.

Unfortunately, Dead Island’s sound foundations were eroded by Techland’s apparent penchant for self-sabotage. Dubious collision detection, a clumsy UI, an exploitable quest system and clunky NPCs of questionable nationality all did their level best to undermine the concept. As a single-player experience, the problems proved much harder to ignore and often outweighed the mindless fun to be had with friends. Ultimately, Dead Island revealed itself to be a beast that was simultaneously broken and not broken; a zombie incarnation of the late Schrödinger’s cat.

For better or worse, a brief pre-alpha co-op demo reveals Dead Island Riptide to be aping the shuffling gait of its predecessor. Riptide features a new game play mechanic that fits into its campaign but borrows elements from Gears of War’s Horde mode and requires defences to be erected and traps to be set. The din of a motorised water pump draining the flooded tunnels beneath a ruined church attracts waves of zombies, which shuffle out of the jungle and rise up from the water-logged surroundings. As the multi-pronged assault plays out, the undead throw themselves against fences, stumble over mines and are cut down by a mobile machine gun emplacement. Inevitably, the defences are eventually breached, which necessitates players and friendly NPCs to go toe-to-toe with their rotting assailants.

While the horde never reaches the magnitude of that endured during Left 4 Dead’s end of level hold-outs, it’s sufficient to make for a tense 15-minute segment. In between waves, defences are hastily repaired, ammo replenished and mines scattered anew as NPCs chatter nervously about the overwhelming odds and the weather takes a turn for the worse, reducing visibility. The scenario that plays out is one of tried and tested blood-soaked fun but while there’s little here that we haven’t seen before, it’s enough to reinforce the series’ gift for macabre slapstick.

Unfortunately, there are telltale signs of a Dead Island hangover. On more than one occasion an extended foot or swiping blade inexplicably fails to connect with the cranium of a nearby cadaver, while headless corpses spasm and convulse of their own accord despite a purportedly improved physics system. Pre-alpha footage this may be, but with the game launching in April 2013, Techland and publisher Deep Silver need to shift through the gears to ensure that ample time and resources are afforded at the end of development for a great deal of necessary polishing.

More worrying is the notion that Techland may once again lose sight of what it is that holds its creation together. The release of Dead Island’s Ryder White DLC did little to reassure fans that the developer has a handle on exactly what made its original game fun enough to forgive its flaws. However, creative producer Sebastian Reichert is adamant that everyone involved in the project is now on message and understands that Dead Island operates best when it’s allowing you to curate your own stories, rather than attempting to force-feed you narrative under restrictive circumstances.

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More worrying is the notion that Techland may once again lose sight of what it is that holds its creation together.

By Deep Silver’s own admission, Dead Island Riptide features neither the necessary level of change to the original template nor sufficiently innovates on its mechanics to be deserving of the title of true sequel. But Riptide is not an expansion for the first game either: it matches the original’s scope and content and brings with it a handful of new features, many of which are only hinted at during the demo. The option for veteran Dead Island players to carry over their character from the original game is welcomed and doing so will keep intact both level progress and skill set. Meanwhile, the level cap will be raised sufficiently so as not to stymie character development.

The waterlogged island of Palanai is complemented by a dynamic weather system, which necessitates a new mode of transportation. The motorised boat offers new game play mechanics as zombies rise from the waist-deep water and attempt to drag players overboard. Elsewhere, a new weapon proficiency system enables characters to become experts with whatever weapon class they enjoy most, in addition to investing points into the skill tree to learn a handful of new abilities.

Techland’s shaky past performance means that, until playable builds emerge early next year, we can’t be confident of whether the implementation of these features will enhance or destroy the balance of Dead Island Riptide. It’s with trepidation that we await the results and will continue to consider Riptide a slightly whiffy zombie version of Schrödinger’s cat. As such, its fate cannot be accurately surmised until we open the box and find out if it has gone to a better place or is rotten beyond hope.

Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherent the Earth. You can follow him on Twitter.